Gallery: Illegal fortune-seekers mine for gold in Peru

Rodrigo Abd, AP05.12.2014

In this May 4, 2014 photo, a miner holds an amalgam of mercury and gold he mined after working a 28-hour shift at an illegal gold mining process, in La Pampa, in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. Thousands of artisanal gold miners sweat through the long shifts and endure, for a few grams of gold, the perils of collapsing earth, limb-crushing machinery and the toxic mercury used to bind gold flecks.

Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 4, 2014 photo, a miner continues his search for gold in mud-drenched clothes inside a crater at an illegal gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. The informal miners of La Pampa know they will soon be evicted, their engines blown up and settlements burned after Peru’s government declared all informal mining illegal on April 19. The government claims that the informal miners have destroyed the surrounding forests and polluted the environment by using mercury in the gold extraction process.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 4, 2014 photo, a mining camp lines the horizon in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. Since artisanal gold mining took hold in La Pampa, miners began carving a lawless, series of ramshackle settlement out of the Amazonian jungle territory in 2008. The artisanal miners, who know they will be soon be evicted, are working up to the last minute after Peru’s government declared all informal mining illegal on April 19.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 5, 2014 photo, miners known as “Maraqueros” ready a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a “Chupadera,” after hauling the device about 16-meters deep into a crater at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. A new threat now looms for the estimated 20,000 wildcat miners who toil in huge scar of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa, an area nearly three times the size of Washington, D.C. Peru’s government declared all informal mining illegal on April 19 and began a crackdownRodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 4, 2014 photo, a miner naps near his workstation in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. Thousands of artisanal gold miners sweat through the 28-hour shifts and endure, for a few grams of gold, the perils of collapsing earth, limb-crushing machinery and the toxic mercury used to bind gold flecks. They chew coca leaf, a mild stimulant, to ward off the fatigue that can lead to fatal accidents.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 5, 2014 photo, after it stopped raining, Johan tied his father’s raincoat around himself while playing in the front yard of their temporary home next to their satellite tv dish at a mining camp in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. It’s not just miners who are threatened with economic catastrophe from the government’s campaign to wipe out illegal mining operations, said a mining camp cook. For every miner there is a family that eats because he works, she said.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 5, 2014 photo, a motortaxi delivers a cargo of mattresses to a mining camp in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. An estimated 20,000 wildcat miners toil in the malarial expanse of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa, an area nearly three times the size of Washington, D.C.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 3, 2014 photo, Prisaida, 2, sits in the shallow waters of a polluted lagoon as her parents mine for gold nearby, in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. The lagoon emerged as a result of miners bombarding the earth with jet streams of water in search of gold. The miners know they will be soon be evicted, Peru’s government declared all informal mining illegal on April 19.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 5, 2014 photo, a miner rests on top of a rustic sluice-like contraption layered with pieces of carpets to capture the gold deposits from water sediment in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. Engine noise is the characteristic sound of this Amazonian jungle territory nearly three times the size of Washington DC. There are no trees, only hills of moved earth and artificial ponds of brown water where gold is mined.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 5, 2014 photo, miners swish sands on special carpets, filtering for gold pieces that fall into the pool of water at their feet, in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. The carpets are removed from a rustic sluice-like contraption that capture the gold deposits, with the aid of a rustic hydraulic mining machine, known locally as a “Traca.”Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 3, 2014 photo, a jet stream of water passes above two miners known as “Maraqueros” who remove stones and chunks of tree trunks that have been released with the aid of a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a “Chupadera,” in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. The Chupadera aims powerful jet streams of water at earth walls, releasing the soils that hold the sought after flecks of gold.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 4, 2014 photo, a miner uses a boot to fill with water the radiator of a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a “Chupadera,” used to to mine for gold at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. Miners sweat through 28-hour shifts in the malarial jungle of the Madre de Dios region in southeaster Peru, enduring for a few grams of gold the perils of collapsing earth and limb-crushing machinery.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 3, 2014 photo, a rope hangs around the trunk of a tree at a illegal gold mining process in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. An estimated 20,000 miners toil in this malarial expanse of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 3, 2014 photo, an informal miner works to separate flecks of gold from the sandy, alluvial soil, using mercury to bind inside the crater of a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. The clock has run out for the thousands of illegal gold miners who had until April 19 to legalize their status in a region of southeastern Peru where fortune-seekers have ravaged rainforests and contaminated rivers.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

In this May 4, 2014 photo, a miner melts an amalgam of gold and mercury to burn off the mercury, in La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. This rudimentary process of extracting the gold from the amalgam, releases mercury vapors, adding to the contamination that is resulting in the deforestation of thousands of acres of the Amazon rainforest. Peru’s government declared all informal mining illegal on April 19 and began a crackdown, dynamiting their equipment.Rodrigo Abd
/ AP

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